To Give an Inch
by gabeclone
Summary: I got the idea for this from AberrantScript's Every Last Drop, so that should tell you what this story is about. Not that it's just a longer version of that. It's thematically similar, but it's not going to be the same. You could think of this story as being a more realistic version of that one... To a certain extent...
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one of… This thing. This chapter is fairly short, and I don't know if the next few will be any longer. Like, I literally don't know. I have no idea. While I have an eventual end point in mind for this, I haven't actually planned that much out. I created blueprints for the main characters, and that's about it. Usually I create a roadmap for myself before I even publish a chapter, so let's see where this goes together.

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Coming up to Lincoln's bedroom door, Lori swung it open without knocking, and stepped into the room. Her eyes scanned the small area, before quickly settling on her younger brother. He was reading comics in his underwear, and his face turned red when he looked up to see her.

"Lincoln, come to my room, we need to talk, now." She began before he could get a word out.

Setting down his comic, he blinked at her, surprised, but hopped off his bed anyway.

"Now." She said again, when he went for his dresser.

"Can't I put on some clothes first?" His face scrunched up in confusion.

"Now." She repeated again, turning around and walking back down the length of the hall. She heard him fall in behind her, his socked feet barely making any noise against the thick carpet.

Punching in the code to enter her room, she ushered him in before her, and closed the door. Locking it, so Leni wouldn't come in and interrupt them. Turing around again, she watched him squirm in place under her gaze. His head ducked and his body turned to the side, as though he were trying to shrink into himself under her stare. And fair enough, he was literally almost naked.

"What did you-"

"Stop." She cut him off, and he startled in surprise. Looking up at her, he nervously shuffled his feet. "What do you want out of life, Lincoln?"

"I… What do you mean?"

"What do you want more than anything else in the world?" Freezing in place, he stared at her for a few second, but flushed and looked away. "Tell me." She commanded.

"I… I…" Quivering in place, he struggled to meet her gaze.

"Never mind." Her brother stopped shaking. "But this just proves my point."

"You're point?" He cast her a confused look.

"I don't need to know what you want most, but do you really think you're going to get it?"

"I mean… I hope so." He breathed.

"Not like this you're not!" She barked back, causing him to jerk and take few stumbling steps backward.

"I… I don't know what you mean."

"Lincoln," She sighed. "You're not strong enough. I love you, but you're weak. Whatever you want; If you try to get it, other people are just going to step on you and take it for themselves." Stalking forward, she towered over him. "You can't stand up for yourself, and you give in too easily. Case in point," She waved a hand to point out his state of undress. "You literally followed me here almost naked."

"I thought it might have been an emergency." He muttered defensively and looked away.

"Is the house on fire?!" She demanded, jerking his attention back to her.

"N-no?"

"Then what could possibly have been so urgent that you couldn't even wear clothes for it?"

"I…"

"You're too submissive Lincoln, but I'm here to change that." She smirked. "I'm going to teach you how to be dominant. I'm going to teach you how to be strong."

**My toilet clogged.**

Flipping her phone into silent, so she wouldn't be as tempted to answer it, Lori descended into the chaos of the first floor. She scanned the room quickly, to make sure nobody was getting into any kind of trouble that would keep them from getting out the door on time, and swooped down to pluck Lily off the floor. The youngest Loud having just slipped from her diaper; Something she'd probably keep doing until she was old enough to wear pants.

Without a word, she handed the youngest Loud off to Lynn, as the sporty girl was passing by, and stooped down to snatch up Lily's discarded diaper. Holding it open, while Lynn lowered the half naked two year old into it. Lori wrapped an arm around Lily; resting the toddler on her hip, as she stepped into the kitchen.

A frantic energy stirred up the room, as her siblings got ready for the day. Leni took by the counter making healthy smoothies for the breakfast line, even as Luan attempted to disrupt it by slowly lowering a fake spider, on a string, into her field of view.

"No." Lori wrenched the spider prop from Luan's hands, and cast her a withering glare. Nobody was going to stop them from getting out the door on time.

"What?" Leni looked up from the blender, and looked between them, confused.

"Nothing Leni. Luan's just eager for her smoothie." She turned away from Leni, to fix Luan with another look. "Weren't you, Luan?"

"Oh, uh, yep! You caught me! Ha ha…" She chuckled unconvincingly, but it was apparently enough to fool Leni. "Thanks for helping us Smoothie out this misunderstanding Lori. Ha ha, get it?"

That taken care of, she lowered Lily into her high chair, and swept the room for more trouble. Her senses, once again, landing back on her only brother.

Lincoln stood by the stove, a selection of breakfast options available to the side of him, and… Her hand flashed out to catch the football, that would have otherwise smashed through the kitchen window, and she whipped around to glower darkly at Lynn. The younger girl frozen in place in her sight. Then she nodded her head at the end of the breakfast line, and turned away again. Her thoughts coming back around to Lincoln, who'd just handed off a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, with French toast for bread, to the twins.

The fact that he specially prepared everyones chosen breakfasts… That was something she was going to miss when she was done with him. Or maybe not. She'd never attempted to train confidence into someone, so she didn't really know what she was going to do. And Lincoln was a special case anyway. A lot of what he did… Well he didn't take food requests from the kids in his class, and make lunch for them, so… Was he just being nice, or was this another symptom? She'd still help him, even if it was just a symptom, but she'd definitely miss it. So she hoped this was just a matter of him being a particularly good brother.

Lori swept the room with her eyes, once more, and stepped into the breakfast line behind Lynn.

Lincoln had a lot of things like that. His weakness often blurring in with the fact that he was just honestly a great guy. She didn't want to crush him. She didn't want to ruin the best parts of him. She just wanted to help him overcome his weaknesses. How much was too much, though? How far could she push him before he crumbled? Lori didn't want to find out, so she'd have to be careful about this.

Coming to the end of the line, she thanked him for her usual. Hard boiled eggs, and toast. Variety was nice, but there was an advantage to getting the same thing every time. Lincoln was an excellent chef, but his best work was always with what he was most familiar with. After so many years, he'd gotten hard boiled eggs down to an art form. It may have been a simple thing to make, but simple things could still be elevated to new heights.

Popping the last bit of egg into her mouth, she quickly checked the time, and began cleaning up.

"Alright everyone, we have to go in ten minutes!" She raised her voice above the din. "Be in the car by then, Or I'm literally leaving you behind!"

As the clamor changed from a more relaxed flow, to a frantic surge, Lori waded through the push of bodies, and out into the hall. She plucked her backpack from where it was, beside the front door, and stepped out onto the porch. Taking a moment, she breathed in deeply, savoring the crisp morning air. She tread across the grass to the van, and slipped into the drivers seat. Setting aside her plans for Lincoln, for the moment, so she could focus her attention on putting the finishing touches on her date with Bobby next weekend.

They went mini golfing a lot, so maybe something different was in order? Maybe a picnic, or the beach?

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Chapter notes:

I fixed my toilet.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two, probably. Who knows, maybe I'll post these out of order. Probably not, but still… And wouldn't that be a really great way to do something, like the film Memento? If I wrote a story with an unreliable narrator, and posted all the chapters out of order. Sounds pretentious, but also possibly hilarious, or deep. It really depends on how well I did it.

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"First lesson of confidence school." Lori paced back and forth in front of her bed, upon which her brother sat. "Half of getting things done is just in letting others know what you want to do." She stopped to stand before him. "In a lot of cases, people will be happy to accommodate you."

"How do you mean?" He leaned forward, gazing at her intently. The picture perfect image of an eager student, and Lori couldn't help but wonder if it would actually be this easy.

Had Lincoln never asserted himself, because he literally didn't know how? It was the ideal case, but she didn't think it was as simple as that. Things rarely were. He'd at least need to learn to break the habit of passivity, which would haunt him until he managed to throw it off completely. Still, things were looking up, and Lori couldn't help but be optimistic about it all.

"A general rule, when dealing with other people, is that they usually want two things. They want to help you, and they want to do it without going to far out of their own way."

"What do you mean by too far?"

"I mean that you shouldn't depend on people who have nothing invested in you, but you can use them none the less. People, who don't know you, will usually be happy to perform any task that doesn't take a lot of effort on their part. This means that you can delegate a lot of tasks, but you have to be aware of how far a particular person is willing to go for you, and give them tasks that they'll be happy to do."

Stopping, she stood back and watched him chew his way through what she'd already taught him. They were starting with the basics, of the basics, but there was still a bit there. A bit of human nature, some guidelines for communicating better, a little bit of resource management. She figured she'd get better results if she taught it all piece by piece, instead of just dumping it all on his head, all at once.

"Let's practice." Treading to the door to her room, she unlocked it and stuck her head out into the hall. "Leni!" She shouted loud enough for her younger sister to hear her, provided she was anywhere in the house. "Come here for a minute!"

"Leni?" Lincoln sat, twisted around to see her.

"I figure this will work better if you have someone to practice on." And Leni was the easiest member for him to practice on. She was heavily invested in Lincoln, especially eager to please, and extremely care free. If Lincoln couldn't get Leni to do something for him, there was something incredibly wrong.

Luna was also a good candidate for these practice sessions. The musician being particularly relaxed, and just as invested in Lincoln as Leni. How relaxed she was might backfire though. There was a very real possibility that she'd agree, and then stop half way through. And that wouldn't help Lincoln.

"Hi Lori!" She turned to look back out into the hall. Leni was at the top of the stairs, waving enthusiastically at her.

"Come here." She waved her sister into the room in front of her. "Lincoln has something to ask you."

"Hi Lincoln." Leni bubbled happily.

"Well?" Lori prompted her brother, when he didn't immediately respond.

"Leni…" Lincoln started.

"Uh-huh." Leni leaned forward as far as she could, without falling over forward.

"Will you go get me a glass of water?"

"Okay Linky!" And she skipped from the room. Leaving her siblings in silence until she danced back in, a glass full of water held tightly in one hand. "Anything else?"

"No." Lori stepped in once more. "That's enough for now. Thanks Leni." She locked the door again, when Leni left the room, And turned back to her brother. He was quietly slurping his glass of water, and Lori watched him for a few seconds. "You think you can do that on your own?"

"Yes."

"Good." She turned, but froze before she could start pacing again. Instead, standing proudly facing the window, with her arms crossed behind her back. "Lesson two, eye contact." She sort of wished she had a drawing pad, or a chalk board, or something.

**I figured out a method to keep… Well, I was having some issues publishing chapters. It's hard to explain, but I fixed it.**

"Whoo!" Lynn hollered and fist pumped in the air, cheering whatever team, for whatever sport, she was watching on tv. Lori wasn't really paying attention. One eye on the phone, the other on making sure nobody fucked anything up.

Her fingers swiped the screen, as she scrolled through her options. No, no, no… She wanted something that was easy to make, but still tasted good, and looked fancy. Something with sauerkraut?

Her eyes flickered over to Lincoln, for a moment. Dropped over the armchair, he had his face buried in a comic. Lincoln liked it, but she didn't know if Bobby would… And she didn't want either of them to have sour breath if they got a little more intimate during the picnic. She scrolled past it.

"Check the kitchen!" Lola thundered down the stairs, chasing her twin around the corner and into the dining room. "Maybe there are some quarters under the fridge!"

"Ah, What?!" Lynn jumped to her feet, scowling. "That wasn't legal! Why isn't the ref doing anything?!" She pointed an accusing finger at the screen.

Maybe a salad? And… Something else. You couldn't have a picnic with just a salad, after all. She needed something else to balance it out… And some drinks. Maybe she'd just get some soda? She wanted to make sure nothing went wrong, but she only had so much time to prepare it… She didn't want to waste time that she could be using on other things. Soda would be fine. Fine wasn't the feeling she was going for, and if the date was just fine she'd be incredibly disappointed, but just fine drinks might be okay if everything else is perfect.

"I found one!" Lana's voice rang from the kitchen.

"Yes!" Lola cheered. "We almost have two dollars now! Let's check the couch!"

From the corner of her eye she saw the twins round the corner again, skidding past the arch as their socks slid across the hardwood floor.

Or she could ask Lincoln. Her eyes found their way back towards him… Was that a good idea? With everything they were doing, she didn't want him to backslide. If she asked him, would he take it as an order? Maybe she'd just-

"Don't shake the couch!" She snapped, glaring down on her animal loving little sister. "Some people are literally using it right now."

"Sorry…" Lana mumbled, putting the seat cushion back in place, and ducking to check underneath instead.

"Hey, Lincoln." Lola sang, turning away from her twin, and approaching their brother. "Money?" She said, as though it were a question. Though everyone there heard the subtext. A toothy grin split her face, as she held her hands out expectantly.

Lori watched the unfolding situation from the corner of her eye, as Lincoln looked up from his book and down at Lola. He sat up straight, and cast a quick glance at her, before turning back to Lola again.

"Sorry, but I'm broke."

Lola remained silent for a minute, her smile gradually drooping, and her eyes slowly narrowing.

"No you're not."

"I spent all my money on comics." He waved the comic between them, emphasizing it.

"Don't lie to me Lincoln." Lola frowned, angry but confused. "I keep track of when people are most, and least, likely to have money at all times. Today is free comic book day." She held out her hand demandingly. "Give it."

Dropping her phone to her lap, Lori turned her attention more fully to the scene, catching her brothers eyes when he turned to look at her again. She raised an eyebrow.

"No." He looked down at their sister again, his voice firm.

Her eyes still narrowed in suspicion, Lola turned her head to follow the direction he'd been looking in. She locked gazed with Lori, then huffed and dragged her twin away.

Lori was honestly proud of Lincoln. She'd never literally believed that he was submissive just because he didn't know how to be dominant, but she wasn't unhappy with being proven wrong. It meant that their sessions would be over faster than she initially thought, but that was fine.

**Spin the wheel of assorted cats.**

"This looks amazing Baby!" Bobby's gaze swept across the scene, at the blanket, the basket, and the food she'd prepared for them, and Lori couldn't help but feel a glow of pride.

"it's nothing Boo Boo Bear." Her eyes crinkled as she smiled. It wasn't nothing, it was actually kind of frustrating. Cooking had never been her forte, but she was happy to do the work. At least, in this case.

For a brief moment, her thoughts flashed back to her idea about telling Lincoln to do it.

"So what do we have?" Kneeling down, he reached into the basket she'd brought and began pulling things out. "Ah, you got my favorite kind of soda!" He gushed, too excited for something so simple. It was just the way he was.

"Well, I knew you liked it." Her giggle was only half forced. She found him cute, but she wouldn't have laughed. "Besides, you literally deserve the best."

"I appreciate it." He smiled at her, before cracking the top and taking a sip. "You know, I'm not sure why, but this makes me think of the store." He was talking about his families convenience store. "The other day, a customer spilled juice on the floor. I didn't noticed it at first, so I ran through it and slipped about five feet on my heels."

"Oh?" She nodded attentively, motioning for him to continue his story.

"Yeah." He chuckled. "I was in too much of a hurry to think about it when it happened, but it was funny after."

"Sounds like fun." She squeezed his shoulder gently, before turning to the basket to set out the food. "I was thinking." She set out the Waldorf salad she'd made. "That I could come down sometime soon." Next to it she set bacon wrapped hotdogs. "It would be nice to spend some time with your family." She smiled sunnily at him. "And you could take me out to dinner afterwards."

"I love it." Grinning cheerfully at her, he loaded a plate up with the salad and a few bacon dogs. "And I'm sure my family would love to have you too. Was there somewhere you wanted to go for dinner?"

"I've thought about it." She confessed. A gentle smile settled across her lips, that remained in place long after the date was over.

She pulled the van into the driveway. The last few rays of sun, before it set over the horizon, streaming through the windows. Taking a deep, content, breath, Lori simply basked in the feeling.

Then with a slow exhale, she unbuckled her seat belt and stepped out onto the driveway. Closing, and locking, the car door behind her, she made her way up the path. Up the steps to the porch. She fished her keys from her bag, clicked it into the lock, tensed in anticipation of insanity, and opened the door.

Luckily, The house was relatively quiet, and intact. She let herself relax slightly, and closed the door behind her. She locked it, and moved towards the stairs.

"Lori." She turned to the side, where Lola was sitting at one of the chairs around the dining room table. The younger girl had it turned around to face the archway, and she looked like she'd been waiting for a while.

"What?" She sighed.

"I have something to show you." Lola hopped off the chair, and pulled a small recorder from her pocket.

"What?" She sighed again. Just what she needed, Lola had something planned. Still, she walked closer. It was better to get it out of the way.

"I don't know what your deal is with Lincoln, but I think you should listen to this." The younger Loud hit play on the recorder.

"Hey Lincoln~" Lola's voice sang from the recorder. "We're alone now."

"Yeah?" His voice sounded slightly bewildered. "Okay, so?"

"Money?" Lola's voice asked.

There were a few seconds of silence from the device, before "Yeah, sure. How much do you need?"

"Five dollars?" Lola's answer was really more of a question, as though she didn't know how much she could get away with asking for.

There was more silence, followed by the sound of velcro being pulled apart.

"Here."

"Thanks Linky!"

"Yeah, sure." There was another second of silence. "Hey," His voice sounded further away. "Don't tell Lori, okay?"

"I won't" Lola's voice sounded, before the real thing cut off the recording.

"I don't know what's going on with you, but I thought you'd want to know about that."

"Yeah…" Lori answered absently. Not really paying attention anymore. "Thanks." She was being pulled between conflicting emotions.

On one hand, she was angry at Lincoln for tricking her. On the other hand, she was confused. Why would he do that?

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Chapter notes:

Absolutely, the hardest part of that chapter was writing the dialogue between Bobby and Lori.

It's always a struggle to figure out how to transition from one scene to the next, without using segment separators. Sometimes two scenes are directly related to each other, but happen hours, or days apart. It's not my style to put a segment separator between scenes that benefit from being a continuous flow. Still, that leaves me with the problem of how to achieve that flow.


	3. Chapter 3

Part before the chapter. Read. Remember. Understand.

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"And now, strutting onto the stage, Mallow!" One of the judges announced from the tv in the other room. "A strong opening; look at that confident walk. Barely a whisper across the stage! And- Oh!" There was a gasp from the studio audience, and from the twins watching on the couch. "It looks like her hoof clipped the edge of the stage there. We'll have to see an instant replay of that!"

"Pathetic." Lola scoffed. "She'd never make it in the professional circuit."

"Don't blame her!" Lana defended. "That's like blaming Leni." Lori didn't like that comparison. "It's whoever trained hers fault."

Lori had other things to think about though. Maybe she's correct Lana later, but for now… She took a breath, and stood straight from leaning agains the wall. Opening her eyes, the rest of the kitchen appeared before her, but she turned around to face the back door.

Through the screen, she watched Lincoln get tackled by Lynn. The two rolled across the ground, Lincoln squirming around until Lynn caught him in a head lock.

"Uncle, Uncle." He gurgled out, tapping their sporty sisters arm until she released him, laughing.

"You ready to go again?" The athlete asked, walking back to her starting position.

"Yeah…" He rasped, and the two began circling each other again.

Watching it… There was a small part of her that wanted to go out there and demand answers from Lincoln. It wouldn't help; if he was trying to hide something from her, he wouldn't cave just because she literally demanded it… Or maybe he would, given how much of a pushover he was normally. She couldn't do that though. Her goal was to build up his confidence. She somehow thought that crushing his will to resist telling her wouldn't work out well.

So without the ability to go up and ask him why he'd lied to her and gone behind her back, she had to figure it out on her own. She'd tried asking their sisters, but none of them were particularly helpful.

Her first thought was that he was pulling some kind of prank on her, but that literally didn't make any sense. He didn't have a reason for doing that, she didn't see how anything he did could have possibly contributed to a prank, he wasn't assertive enough to consider pranking her an option, and he wasn't Luan.

When she threw away that possibility… She was a bit stuck… For a while.

She looked up from her thoughts at the sound of humming. Turning to the side, she caught the sight of Luna spin into the room. The musicians eyes were closed, and she bobbed her head to the beat of whatever song was playing from her headphones. Yanking the fridge open, she pulled out a root beer, twisted off the cap, took a gulp, and danced from the room again.

After dismissed the possibility that Lincoln was trying to prank her, there were only two left. Either Lincoln didn't want to be assertive, or he was afraid of something. While it didn't actually matter much if Lincoln didn't want to be assertive, as he had no say in it, it did matter if he was afraid.

How was she supposed to figure that out though?

**I wonder if I should start naming the individual chapters.**

She tapped her foot against the porch, impatiently texting away on her phone, while she waited for Lincoln to come into sight. He'd gone to Clyde's earlier, and as much as she would have preferred to just grab his arm and drag him away, she didn't want to deal with Clyde bleeding all over her shoes. She got that he had a crush on her, but that was gross.

"Hey Lori!" She looked up from the screen, relief and annoyance mixing together inside of her, as Lincoln walking up the driveway.

Texting her temporary goodbyes to Bobby, she slid her phone back into her pocket, and made her way down the porch steps and towards her little brother. "Hey Lincoln, I've been waiting for you."

"Yeah?" He tilted his head in confusion, until he caught sight of her expression, and his confusion visibly transformed into nerves. "What for?"

"Does it matter?" She could almost applaud him. The way he answered sounded like a challenge, but it wasn't. He was giving ground while pretending to fight. It was subtle. Clever, but cowardly.

"I…" He rocked back on his heels, eyes darting around as he visibly struggled to think of an answer. "Yes?"

He looked up at her, his expression nervous, and only growing more so as she stood there, silently contemplating things. She worked her jaw, as he lost his nerve and glanced down at his feet… The way he'd answered bothered her.

"Follow me." She opted not to explain herself yet, walking past him and out onto the sidewalk.

She heard his feet slap the driveway as he turned to follow behind her, and she kept a steady walking pace as he came up beside her. They walked in silence. She watched him glance about, as though he was looking for an escape. As if she'd do anything to him… It left her with a growing, uncomfortable, feeling that he was afraid of something.

She sighed internally, because she hoped that wasn't the case. She literally didn't know what she was going to do, but she had to do something.

"So…" She kept looking ahead, though she caught him flinch, out of the corner of her eye, when she spoke. "Lola showed me something interesting the other day." She didn't want to crush him, but they couldn't move forward if they didn't talk about it. Lori couldn't have him thinking that he could trick her.

He didn't say anything out loud, but his face twisted with nausea.

"I…" She stopped, working over what she was trying to say, to figure out how best to phrase it. "I'm going to ask you why you lied to me." There, that was a suitably soft ball question. She'd asked without demanding answers, and she also let him know that the game was up.

"I…" Finally turning to fully look at him, she watched him shrink in on himself. His eyes were wide, and he looked sick.

"Never mind, it doesn't matter." She internally sighed in relief as the worst of the tension left his frame. "But." She put her palm to her forehead, and sighed externally too. "I don't know what we're going to do now."

"What do you mean?" It was his first time getting out a full sentence since they started.

"I don't know how I'm supposed to help you, if I don't know what the problem is."

"Y-you don't have to." He looked at her pleadingly, but Lori didn't know if he was pleading for her sake or for his. "We could just stop."

"No." She shot the offer down immediately. "We can't."

**The Mushroom Conspiracy would be a cool band name.**

At the knock, Lori opened her bedroom door to find Lincoln on the other side. Stepping to the side, she watched as he tread past her into the room.

"Lincoln." She nodded to him, though given that he'd literally not taken his eyes off his feet since she opened the door, she doubted he saw her. "Thanks for coming." The gentle approach was the way to go here. If he was actually afraid, being harsh with him would just make him more afraid.

She didn't catch what he said in return, as he mumble at the floor.

"I know this is hard, but it's better this way." Maybe not her most reassuring statement, but she wasn't sure what else to say. It was hard… The entire thing. It felt like walking a tightrope, but she wasn't the one who'd get hurt if she fell. That was the worst part, really. "I thought we'd try something different today." He finally peaked up from his feet.

"I… Uh… O-okay." Her snow haired brother murmured, avoiding eye contact with her.

She breathed in deeply, held it for a second, and let it out in a gentle sigh. Turning to back to the door, she wished she could bark orders or something. Walking on eggshells wasn't really her strong suit.

"Stay here." She instructed over her shoulder, closing the door behind her.

She allowed herself a heavier sigh, and set off down the length of the hall towards the twins room. Straightening at the door, she twisted the knob and stepped confidently into the room.

"Lola." Her gaze zeroed in on the more fashionable of the twins. "Lincoln's waiting in my room." She explained. "Come on." Standing sideways in the door, she held it open as Lola walked past her.

"I don't know why you're bothering with this." The girl grumbled, as she marched back down the hall, Lori following behind.

"You know what to do." She said instead of responding. Payment for this was going to be a nightmare.

Making sure to cover the keypad from Lola's view, Lori punched in the code and stepped into her room. Lincoln had moved to her bed, where he'd been sitting on the edge, distractedly sweeping his palm across the top of the blanket. He jerked when he heard the door open. His eyes shooting to her for a second, before they flicked away and settled on Lola instead. His brow furrowing at the sight of her.

"Today." She brought his attention back to her. "I thought it would be nice for you and Lola to spend some time together."

"I-I… O-okay."

"She'll be on her best behavior." She tried her best to reassure her brother, though she didn't know how well it worked. "I promise."

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Chapter notes:

The third scene was harder to write. It was two people out of their comfort zones, trying to work past it regardless. It was pretty much guaranteed to be awkward.


	4. Chapter 4

This happens now. I'm writing this now, and you're reading this now. Comedy is tragedy plus time. Someday we'll look back and laugh.

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Stepping into the sunlight, Lori basked in the gentle warmth as Bobby followed behind her. The wind rustled the leaves on the trees and carried her friends laughter from their regular table. Ambling across the open yard, she placed her Lincoln packed lunch on an open space at the table and slid onto the bench.

"Hi Lori." Carol nodded to her, "Hi Bobby." She finished as Bobby slid in on the bench next to Lori.

"Heya guys." Bobby waved.

"Hey Carol." She returned. "Becky." Taking her attention off her friends for a moment, Lori snapped the clasps holding her lunchbox closed and carefully pulled each item out. "Catch me up?"

"Ugh." Becky bent backwards in her seat, and groaned at the sky. "My parents think I'm gay."

"Heh," Lori snorted incredulously. "What?" She'd met Becky's parents a couple of times. They were… Focused… That's the nicest way she could put it.

"It's just…" She exhaled heavily, bending back forward and flopping over the table. "Yeah, so you guys know that I haven't dated in a while."

"Hm." Carol hummed in acknowledgment.

"That's just because I like younger guys." She explained to her knowing audience. "The problem with younger guys is that I'm eighteen now, so dating someone younger is technically illegal. On top of that, guys can be so… eh…" Lifting herself from the surface of the table, she absently waved her hand as she trailed off. "So you have to either get really lucky and find the perfect guy, or train up an even younger guy, and I'm not a predator." Then, a few seconds after, she added, "No offense Bobby." Almost as an afterthought.

"None taken." He bobbed his head, smiling.

"Go on, then." Lori prompted, spearing a fork into her usual salad.

"So my parents saw that I wasn't dating any guys and assumed it must be because I'm into girls." Putting her head in her hands, she curled her fingers into her hair and groaned. "So they keep trying to set me up on dates, or introduce me to the daughters of their coworkers."

"Hmm…" She brought a bite of orange, tangy, greens to her mouth and chewed as she thought. Then she bit into some orange pulp and the flavor turned up to eleven. Her thoughts scattered for a moment, as she focused in on what was happening in her mouth. An earthy, grassy, flavor with a subtle edge of sweet, complimented by the spiced tang of fresh oranges and clove… Wow, her brother outdid himself this time. When the moment ended, her thoughts rallied again and she was back to figuring out Becky's problem. "Have you tried… Talking to them?" She winced even as the words past her lips. Seriously? Talking to them?

"Seriously?" Carol's raised brow just added to her embarrassment.

"Look," She rushed to explain, even though she didn't really have a rational for the suggestion. She was literally just going to make something up on the spot. "I know that your parents don't communicate well, but you should always try talking first." Oh wow, that even sounded half way convincing. Now she just had to land it. "It usually works for me, and it's hard to go back to talking once you've already burned that bridge." Nailed it.

"Yes…" Becky heaved a sigh, "I've already tried talking to them."

"Hmm," Carol drummed her fingers on the table. "You could get a fake boyfriend. Someone who you can, at least, tolerate hanging out with, and who knows ahead of time that it's not serious."

"Huh…" Their friend stared aimlessly into the sky, before turning to Lori. "Hey Lori, can I borrow Bobby for a little while? Just, like, a month."

"I'm ok-"

"No." Lori cut Bobby off before he could finish, and thought about elbowing him in the side. "I'm not really okay with the idea of literally renting my boyfriend out."

"Yeah, I didn't think so…" She sighed at length, thankfully ignoring Bobby's aborted response.

"Sounds like your best option is just to explain what's happening to literally every girl they set you up with, and then just wait it out until you find the right guy." It was the most exhausting solution too, but Lori wasn't sure what else her friend was supposed to do.

"Maybe I'll just show them my internet search history… Heh…" Becky chuckled tiredly, slumping back over the table and stretched her arms out to grab the other side. "Not." She added, her words muffled by the wood.

Chewing on the last bite of her salad, her thoughts drifted in different directions. She could sympathize with Becky; families could be literally insane. Unscrewing the cap on her curry dip, she scooped some up with a bean chip and crunched down contently. It wasn't really a dip, and she had a spoon for it, but she preferred to leave it until she was out of chips. She'd gotten pretty good at scooping up all the curry before she even had to use the spoon.

"Have you guys heard about Hamilton?" Shifting in her seat, Carol changed the subject. "It's coming to theaters in Royal Woods, and Great Lakes City."

"The play?" Of course she'd heard of it, everyone had heard of it. Wait, Hamilton was coming to Royal woo-

"No," Her counterpart cut off her train of thought. "They made it into a movie." Oh… "It has really good reviews." Huh.

Polishing off the last of the curry, she took a sip from her tea, before she eagerly sought out the perfectly moist, delectably rich, literally perfect, slice of chocolate cake that sat patiently in the back of her lunch box. Her fork sank into the deceptively plain looking icing, and her mouth watered as curls of chocolatey air wafted across the distance and smothered her senses. The first bite was always the best, and she closed her eyes as she drowned in a sea of decadence.

"Lori." Fingers snapped in her face, and she startled. Her eyes snapping open to Carol's knowing look.

She felt her face flush. What were they talking about?… Oh, yeah. "I'll have to look it up."

**Ever made no knead pizza?**

"Will you look at the time?" Rosa Casagrande cut through the chatter, her hand on her mouth as she looked at the clock. "It's almost time for your date." Was it? Lori glanced at the clock herself. It was, huh. That was both surprising and unsurprising. She tended to lose track of time with the Casagrande's. They were so similar to her own family that it was easy to forget. Pushing herself to her feat, Rosa began shooing Lori and Bobby out the door. "Go on then, you don't want to miss it. We'll be fine here."

"Alright, I'll see you tonight Abuela!" Bobby turned to wave, before unlocking his car and getting in.

"Bye Mrs. Casagrande!" Lori called to her from the street. "I look forward to seeing you all again!"

"Call me Rosa!" Mrs. Casagrande shouted after Lori, in parting. She kept telling Lori to call her by her first name, but Lori wasn't sure if she'd ever be comfortable with that.

As buildings slid past them on either side, Lori settled back in her seat and clicked on the radio. Twisting the dial until it she landed on a music station, she nodded along with the rhythm and watched the scenery fly by.

Rounding the final corner to their destination, her hands absently drifted down to her buckle. Bobby slowed to a stop, parked in front of a diner she'd been looking at over the past week. It was supposed to be a step between casual and formal and looking at it in person, Lori was't disappointed.

Coming around the car, Bobby opened the door for her and followed her in. Their booth enclosed around them when they were seated, and Lori spared her boyfriend a grin. It was everything she'd hoped it would be. The intimacy of a private setting, combined with the comfort of no expectations.

"You know," Bobby smiled at her, sipping at the straw in his root beer. "It's been a while since I swung by your place."

"Weeeell…" She drew out the word as she gathered her thoughts. "Nothing stopping you from just popping in." Except for the fact that he knew she didn't like it when he showed up unannounced, which she counted on. There were honestly a couple reasons why she didn't invite him over to her house, but she literally wasn't going to tell him that he just couldn't come over. What kind of girlfriend would she be if she did that? No, she just did her best to discourage him without explaining why.

"You know that's not true." He teased playfully, pointing at her with a fry.

"Yeah…" She chuckled at having been caught. "What made you think of it?" She took another stab at redirecting the conversation.

"Oh, well we were just at my place." She was apparently successful this time and she allowed herself a silent cheer, even as she listened to him talk.

She spent the rest of the meal listening to him chatter. Nodding to show she was listening, and inserting her own commentary in the lulls, until their food was gone. Paying for their bill, they stepped out into the night and started for their next destination.

It was odd, she thought. How the pleasant pull of sleep, from the food in her stomach, combined with the fact that she was simply tired. The on coming food coma was like a blanket wrapping her up in a cocoon. The exhaustion made her feel like lying down was probably a good idea. Both, together, made keeping herself from yawning almost impossible. But she managed to hold it in as she guided them to their next destination. A pop-up museum, about animation. She knew how much Bobby liked drawing and cartoons, so she figured that he'd like a museum about them.

As it turned out, she was right. She actually had a lot of fun too, and she found herself sagging over Bobby's shoulders as they stepped out onto the street again. The setting sun cast the sky in fall colors as they tread back towards where he parked.

"What next?" He looked at her pleadingly, but Lori just couldn't. She literally couldn't.

"How about you decide?" Because she was way too tired right now.

"Ice cream?" No. She felt a flash of irritation.

"I don't really feel like eating something else right now." He'd always had more of a sweet tooth than her.

"How about the mall." Ugh… This was why she didn't let him choose most of the time. Being in control was all well and good, but if you were going to be choosing something for multiple people to do, you had to consider both the context, and what those people would actually want to do.

"It's probably closed by now." Under normal circumstances she would have been happy to go to the mall with Bobby, but this was a date. People dated at the mall when they didn't know each other, or had nothing in common.

"We could go to a bookstore." He suggested, to Lori's surprise. It was actually a place she might like to go. Though, she didn't know if he came up with it because he knew she liked to read, or if he was just taking a shot in the dark. She'd believe either.

"How about," She sighed and put more of her weight on his shoulder. "We just take the long way back to my house."

"Oh, yeah." He bobbed his head. "Alright."

**Gluten is a reaction between water and wheat proteins. Kneading it doesn't create gluten, it just speeds up the process.**

The pins clicked as she slid her key into the lock. Twisting the knob, she took a single, tired, step into the house and stopped. Lincoln was laying on the couch and he looked up when she came in, his face lighting up happily.

"Hey Lincoln." She nodded to him.

"Hi Lo-" He started, then stopped when Bobby came in after her.

"Hey Buddy!" Came her boyfriends excited call.

"… Hello Bobby…" Her brother responded, not quite rudely, but… flatly. Lincoln was always like that around Bobby. It was one of the reasons that Lori tried to keep Bobby from coming over. Lincoln was able to be polite, but she could tell that he didn't like her boyfriend.

"How's it going?" Bobby continued, oblivious to Lincoln's distaste for him. She didn't know how she felt about that.

"Fine." Lincoln said, and she could see the war inside him on whether to say anything else. "How was your date with Lori?" He settled on.

"Can't complain." Then he leaned in conspiratorially, "You're sister won't let me." He mock whispered, snickering to himself as he stood straight again. Heh… Sigh…

"Bobby," She snagged his attention. "I love you," Lincoln's face tightened out of the corner of her eye. "But it's getting really late."

"Ah, yeah." Glancing outside, he nodded. "You're right, it is." He turned back to her as she stepped into his space and their lips met for a second, before she moved back. Sliding past her, he opened the door and looked back. "See you tomorrow?"

"Definitely." As though he had to ask.

"Than, I'll see you then. Bye Lincoln!" He waved one last time and shut the door.

She waited a moment, until she heard his car pull away, before she collapsed face first onto the couch her brother recently left. Groaning in satisfaction at finally being able to rest, she buried her face into the cushion.

A sudden hand on her back made her jump, and twist her head to look. It was just Lincoln, she forgot he was there for half a second, but she was glad he was as she felt him begin to scratch. A feeling that was somewhere between a massage, tickling, and scratching an unreachable itch. His nails raked up and down her back, sending tingling sensations racing up her spine and down to her toes. Lincoln was really good at giving back scratches. He was even better at giving massages. Though she supposed that he was bound to get pretty good. Given how much he did for everyone, she'd be surprised if he wasn't pretty good at a lot of stuff.

"No." She said, when she felt his hand begin to rise. She was tired, and achey, and she didn't want to move. She just wanted to lay on the couch and feel her brothers magic fingers, damn everything else. "Keep going."

And he did. His fingers driving down into her flesh, as he kneaded her back muscles, and worked his way down.

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Chapter notes:

Is there some kind of secret to getting just a butt load of reviews? I don't actually care that much, but I noticed that other authors have way more reviews even when our stories are similarly popular.

As far as I know, nobody is making a Hamilton movie. There is a film composited from a bunch of different performances of the play, but that's not really the same thing. Check it out, if you want though, because it's semi close.

So if you make a high hydration dough, you can just leave it on the counter for six hours and it'll make it's own gluten. You do actually have to mix it into a cohesive dough in the first place, but you can just let it sit after that. You also end up with a much thicker crust than with a regular pizza. All the extra water means that it expands a lot more in the oven, so it's not a normal pizza. It's more like an… Inch thick sheet of delicious bread, that has pizza sauce, cheese, and other additions, on top.

Is giving your siblings a back scratch not something that anybody else here does? It suddenly struck me that, it could be that my siblings and I are the only ones who did that; in which case, that whole thing at the end might come off as creepy to some people.


End file.
